Grand mal epilepsy as recorded during dynamic electrocardiography.
A patient with diagnosed epilepsy was followed at a post-myocardial infarction clinic with routine ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring. On one particular occasion while being monitored, he manifested an epileptic seizure. The features and duration of the seizure were reflected in the electrocardiographic recording. Cardiac arrhythmias may result in epileptiform seizures which may be mediated either through vagomedullary reticular pathways or through cerebral hypoxia as a result of the hemodynamic disturbance. The apparent epilepsy may vary from confused behavior to a generalized seizure and may thus mimic true cryptogenic epilepsy. The following case concerns a post-myocardial infarction patient with diagnosed epilepsy who sustained a seizure which was documented by an ambulatory electrocardiographic recorder.
D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000503:physiopathology; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004830:Epilepsy, Tonic-Clonic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male